Welsh Girl living in Scotland who loves to cook and eat!

December 27, 2017August 12, 2018

Broccoli & Cauliflower Soup

I just love this recipe which I made up from a fridge full of leftover vegetables one day and literally chucked them all together to make this most delicious soup! It’s a great soup to make if you are on a diet or maybe you’ve had a few days where you have eaten more than usual and want to cut back a bit. My soup is filling, tasty and will warm you up nicely on a cold day.

This recipe makes about 7 to 8 portions, so there was plenty leftover for lunch with a friend the next day. It’s worth making a large pot of this and storing in the fridge for easy lunches in the week. It also freezes well.

It’s delicious served with a hunk of homemade sourdough bread or a yummy a Tattie Scone to dunk in!

I made it the other day when my Mum and Dad came to visit. I make a lot of soup recipes but I had to pick a recipe for my parents which did not contain carrots. My Dad hates carrots with a vengeance! He won’t eat carrots, parsnip, turnips, swede or anything which even remotely resembles a carrot in shape or colour! I think the school dinners he was served during the War put him off carrots for life.

He is also a bit suspicious of butter nut squash because it’s orange like a carrot, but after some reassurance, will eat it. He won’t eat coriander either, probably because it begins with the same letter as a carrot! However, he did enjoy my Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup which was both carrot and coriander free so it ticked all his food boxes. Result!

I cooked my soup in just 3 min on Manual in my Instant Pot Pressure Cooker but you can also cook in a big stock pot on the hob by simmering for around 25 min. Stir every now and then for hob cooking.

I just chopped all the veg, chucked everything in, cooked, then blitzed with a hand held blender. You will notice that I include the broccoli and cauliflower stalks as these are super tasty when added to a soup and must be included for maximum flavour!

It not only tastes great but works out at just 1 Smart Point per bowl on the new Weight Watcher Flex Diet Plan.

I used homemade stock in mine but you can use a few stock cubes for convenience such as chicken, vegetable or both. I saved around 2 pints of chicken stock after pressure cooking a whole chicken the other night and just skimmed off all the fat off the top of the stock once it had been totally chilled in the fridge. I also added a pint of vegetable stock leftover from cooking more broccoli for another meal and added this to my soup.

The weight watcher points in this soup just come from the potatoes and stock cubes as all the other ingredients are free on the diet plan.

Here it is and is definitely worth making!

Ingredients
two thirds of a large cauliflower including the best of the green leaves and stalks
2 heads of broccoli including the stalks
2 small onions (peeled)
3 sticks of celery, chopped
2-3 medium peeled potatoes, chopped
a tablespoon of fresh or teaspoon of dried herbs
3 pints of fresh stock (e.g. fresh chicken stock with all the fat skimmed off and/or vegetable)
2 extra stock cubes (chicken or vegetable)
a whole bulb of garlic with the cloves separated. Add the whole cloves.
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
enough extra water from the kettle to cover all the vegetables

Method

Chop all the vegetables and add everything to the Instant Pot. Cook on manual for 3 min followed by Natural Pressure release for 10 then Manual Pressure Release.

Alternatively simmer on the hob in a stock pot with a lid on top for around 25 min, stirring now and then.

Blitz with a hand held blender leaving the odd chunky bit for added texture. Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper if required.